This weekend sees perhaps what many consider to be the spectacle of the formula 1 season with the Monaco Grand Prix. The location is spectacular seeing these magnificent machines flying round the streets on Monte Carlo at tremendous speeds. But I can’t help thinking that the circuit needs changing just a little, to provide an even better race.

Above is the circuit as it stands today. It has seen some minor alterations over the years but essentially it is the same circuit that has been raced on year after year from the 1950s through to the present day. It has provided fans of Formula 1 and other motor sport with many thrilling races over the years. However it lacks perhaps the one thing that we all want to see in Formula 1 and that is overtaking. The narrow streets and twister circuit provide an excellent back drop for a terrific race, but what they do not give is overtaking opportunities. It is for this reason that getting on the front row of the grid (pole position is best) is absolutely crucial for victory. Take a look at this video clip below of Mansell and Senna back in 1992.

Mansell was leading the race from the start and had a 30 second lead over Senna. Then he picked up a puncture about 5 laps from the end which brought him out just behind Ayrton. He has 4 laps to overtake in an immensely faster car with fresh rubber giving him all the grip that he needed, but he just couldn’t get past. All Senna had to do was put his car in the right place and he could have drive 10 seconds a lap slower than normal and Mansell would not have got past.

So then, my proposal. Below is a diagram of how I think that the circuit could be changed in order to improve the overtaking opportunities on the circuit. Changes are in red.

I have been to Monaco and therefore know that there is room for these changes. The change that is needed is to lengthen the straight after the cars come out of the tunnel and create a high breaking zone where the faster Tabac corner is now. This corner would be turned into a chicane to slow the cars down before they get into the swimming pool complex. Having a longer straight would enable more passing to take place. They should also widen the track at this point to prevent drivers just putting their car in the middle of the track and stopping others passing even if they are slower. This could be done here because the Nouvelle Chicane escape road could be used as well as the existing track, providing a wider track for overtaking.

I think would still keep the Monte Carlo circuit character and at the same time hopefully make the race less of a precession with very little overtaking occurring at the moment. What do you think?

For Christmas my wife decided to get me something a little different. I have been a fan of motor racing, in particularly formula one for some time and I have always wanted to have a go in a single seater racing car. Well my wife bought me a single seater racing experience gift for Christmas and having booked the event back in February, today was finally when I got out on the track.

Setting off to the Three Sisters Racing Circuit near Ashton, Wigan I was a little apprehensive as the weather was just a little inclement. In fact it was snowing, not the kind of weather that you want to test out your first single seater car in really! As we arrived at the circuit however the rain and snow had stopped and the sun was out, albeit it was still rather cold. After registering at reception we had a short wait before my ‘briefing’ with one of the instructors and so I took the time to assess the track conditions and take a look at some of the other cars out their on the track. I could tell straight away that this was going to be really good fun.

So about 15 minutes later I went in for my briefing session where the instructor tells you about what to do and what not to do, overtaking, different coloured flags etc. That lasted about 20 minutes and what actually very informative and worth while. Then it was down to the car garage to start your session.

The first thing was to take a few laps around with an instructor in a saloon car. The car of choice for this racing school was a rather nice looking Mini Cooper in gun metal grey. It was a 1600cc engine and it was fun. Before I had even got going I had a cut on my thumb (I love picking scabs!) that we had to get sorted. So it was radioed down to the ambulance that came zooming up the the circuit to get me a plaster. With everyone watching it made me a little nervous and my wife a little embarrassed. The paramedic opened his boot with all of the equipment in and there they were a set of paddles for shocking the patient. Not the reassurance you need before getting out on the track at around 110mph.

Was I was patched up it was out in the mini with the instructor who showed you the racing lines. He concentrated on telling you where to brake, where to turn in and accelerate again through the corners. This again was invaluable tuition and made a great difference when out on track. However at the end of the first lap in the mini we were ordered to come back to the pits as the snow was pelting down again and there had been two spinners on the track. One a turn three and someone off along the back straight into the tyre wall, but nothing serious. The instructor was happy that I had had enough in the mini and then it was into the single seater formula ford car itself.

The single seater’s are quite small with 1600cc engine, which doesn’t sound an awful lot, but when you think about their weight you get an awful lot of power underneath your right foot. They are around 400 kilo’s lighter than the mini even though that had the same engine in. Getting into the car is harder than you think. You have to sort of slide down and the actual sitting position in the car is almost as though you are led down. It was quite uncomfortable but better than I had imagined. When you are sat in the car you cannot see your feet and therefore you have to feel for the peddles which took quite sometime. The brake was the hardest to find as it didn’t really press an awful lot at all, but once I had found them they strapped me in. And strap you in they do, to the point where you can’t actually move once you are belted up.

With the snow coming down hard the track was going to be greasy and slippery but I was confident that I could handle the pace! Coming out of the garage into the put straight it dawned on me how much power I had as just touching the throttle to get the thing moving I nearly slammed into the car in front. Then we were away in front of the pace car. The first few laps the pace car takes it steady and then he started pick up the pace and I was doing really well, keeping up as the lap time started to get faster. In fact I was really starting to get the hang on this and the guy in front of me received the board telling him that car 8 (my number) was to overtake him, which I duly did into the first corner. I then followed the pace car around for what must have been about 7 laps at a pretty good speed it the front of the queue. The guy at the front had left the track on the back straight!.

On my third to last lap I entered the tricky first and second corner, which is a right left with the left be a sharp hairpin type of bend. I had a little to much acceleration going through turn two and the back stepped out. I managed to bring it back with a handful of opposite lock and continued on my way. I didn’t learn from this though as the next time round the same thing happened again only this time the back swapped ends with the front and I had spun round. The engine stalled however I manged to restart and after going across the grass in order to get back on the circuit all was well. I was gutted though as I was going so well.

One lap later that was it, the chequered flag came out and it was back to the pit garage and off the debrief where they gave us all a certificate and feedback questionnaire. It was a thoroughly brilliant experience and I would love to go again. I can imagine that it could get quite addictive!

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Three Sisters Racing Circuit
Racing School
Photo Gallery

With the sacking on Steve McClaren after the appalling display against Croatia the other week, which resulted in us failing to qualify for Euro 2008, the search for a manager is now on.  But who are the candidates and who should get the job?  Should he be British or does it not matter?

Well there are lots of names that are being thrown into the limelight that are candidates to get the new job, but one thing is for sure – the FA better get the job right, because this could be the last chance for a long time before we can have the possibility of winning a major championship.

Lets start with the English candidates and then move on from there.  I suppose that high up the list would be Sam Allardyce.  He was in contention when the job was available last time however was never really considered in the end by the FA.  At the time he was manager of Bolton, and doing very well, with Bolton in the top 8 in the Premier League and also getting them into Europe.  He is now managing Newcastle and languishing at the lower end of the table and therefore I think that this will rule him out.  Next on the English would probably be Stuart Pearce.  Former player and manager of Manchester City, he is currently the coach of the Under 21 side.  Talk has been that he could co-manage the national side with Alan Shearer.  The final, and perhaps best English candidate would be Harry Redknap (sorry mum!).  Currently the manager of a successful Portsmouth side Harry has been around the English game for a long time.  He knows the players and seems to be a very good man-manager, a quality that is surely wise to have when you are the England boss.

Then there are the over-seas candidates.  One name that has come up in discussion is Fabio Capello.  He is a proven winner with some great sides like Milan and Real Madrid and perhaps more recently with Roma.  He would be a sound choice, but he has no experience of the English game and has never managed an English Premier League side.  This could be a problem and I don’t think he would come across well with the press.  Martin O’ Neil is another option, although he has said that he is not interested.  The Irishman made his name as manager of Leicester in the ‘90s and he also took charge of a good Celtic team.  Now managing Aston Villa, he wouldn’t be my choice.

So that leaves just one candidate.  He managed at Chelsea until the start of the season and I have to say that I have never liked him from day one.  However Jose Mourinho has the right qualities to be the England manager.  He is arrogant, to take the media attention away from the players, he is not frightened of making tough decisions and he is a proven winner.  He has one the Champions league with Porto, two Premier League titles with Chelsea and two domestic cup competitions with the same club.  As he has managed in England he knows the English game and many of the players and therefore this would be a benefit.  So although it pains me to say it I think that he would be the best candidate for the job at this time.

But what is the rush.  We have nothing to play for until the world cup qualifiers start in later 2008.  So why rush to get someone in the job straight away.  I say wait until the right man comes along and if he is English then great, but if he isn’t then it doesn’t matter.  In my opinion England don’t need a football coach.  Let’s face it if you are playing for England do you need coaching?  I don’t think so as you are good enough to play for your country.  Therefore what we need is someone who can pick the players that they want and that will work, preferably without changing them too much and then get a system that works.  They need to be able to deal with the press well and have good man management skills.  All of these are qualities that Jose Mourinho has.  Harry Redknap also has these however he is not a proven winner.

Oh, and by the way for a stab in the dark, what about asking Sir Alex Ferguson to leave United and come and manage the English national side?  That would be interesting.

I have been a football fan since about the age of four and in that time I have seen the national team go from pretty good (Mexico ’86), to really good (Italy ’90), to absolutely disastrous (USA ’94 or not!), to pretty good again (Euro ’96) and then slip back to average again from ’98 to 2006.  But what happened last night was just a disaster.  So I thought it was time to ask why?  What has gone wrong?

It was the summer of 1966 when English football hit its peak.  We won the world cup at Wembley beating the then named West Germany by 4 goals to 2, with Geoff Hurst scoring an amazing hatrick.  Unfortunately I was not around when this happened and after the events of yesterday evening I am beginning to wonder whether I will be around if and when the next time this happens.  It would be a great shame if another England team could not repeat what the great England team of the 60s and early 70s produced.  Since 1966 we have only managed to get to the semi-finals of a major tournament twice – the world cup of 1990 when we were beaten by the Germans (who went onto win the world cup that year) on penalties and in Euro 96 when once again we were beaten by the Germans (who also went on to win that tournament to) on penalties.  Maybe if it wasn’t for the Germans we would have won two major tournaments since 1966!

There have been great moments in the times when I have watched England.  A few spring to mind.  Firstly the World Cup of 1986 when we played Argentina in the quarterfinals.  It was the infamous hand of god moment and we only lost the game 2 – 1.  Yet again we were beaten by the eventual winners of the tournament (a pattern developing here!).  Still the game was very exiting to watch and the fact that we were cheated made it easier to take.  Secondly, Italia ’90.  There were a few games that are memorable here.  Firstly the quarter final against Cameroon.  Linker scoring twice from the spot and coming back, and we had just beaten Belgium with a last minute winner from David Platt.  Then there was the semi final against Germany, as I have already mentioned.  Thirdly has to be the goal Michael Own scored against Argentina in France ’98.  That lit up the tournament but once again we went out on penalties.  I supposed the last real exiting good times for England was the 5 – 1 win over Germany in Munich on our way to qualifying for the 2002 world cup in Japan and Korea.  This was a great feeling, but I couldn’t help feeling once we had beaten them that we still hadn’t won anything.  And guess who ended up in the final of that tournament against Brazil? (who incidentally we had been beaten by in the quarter final).  Yes you have guessed it the Germans.  Since then it has mainly been doom and gloom cumulating in the defeat last night meaning that we do not qualify for the 2008 European Championships.

So what is wrong?  Why are we not succeeding in a game we invented and in a game in which we have the best domestic league in the world?  Well here are my thoughts on the reasons why.

First and foremost we have an inept fear of losing.  Watching those players out on the pitch last night it was clear that they were in fear.  A fear of losing the match and not qualifying.  When you are feeling like this, it is clear that you are not going to perform your best.  Any manager that comes in to manage the England team needs to find a way of removing this fear and allowing the players to go and play fear free.

Secondly, changes.  The England team is changed far too much.  How many times is the formation changed for different matched and the personnel that are playing different from the last match?  Too often in my opinion.  You look at the successful teams around the world and they play the same players for most matches, except when injuries arise.  You can look at the Croatians last night.  They had pretty much the same starting line-up as other games playing in the same formation.  Take Italy, the world champions.  They are still playing Paulo Maldini in defence even though he is about 40.  This is probably not because he is the best in that position, but because it gives continuity and that works.  For goodness sake select a team and a formation that works and then stick with it.

Thirdly, playing like a team.  This relates to my last point in that when we play we often look like a team of strangers.  This probably links with the fact that the team is changed all the time.  When playing for the national team you are not playing with the same players week in week out and therefore it is crucial to keep things similar so that team understanding can be developed.  This cannot happen when different players are constantly used and formations and tactics changed.

My final point comes down to the premier league and English players overseas.  There are loads of foreign players in the premier league.  Take Manchester City who have a new manager (funnily enough a former England manager – Eriksson).  They are now up in the top six and how have they done it?  They have brought in about 5 new players that are all from overseas.  There are too many foreigners taking the places of good English players, which means that they do not play week in week out for their clubs.  Take the forwards who finished the game last night.  Peter Crouch, doesn’t play that much for Liverpool because of Dirk Kyut, Fernado Torres and Voronin.  Darren Bent and Jermaine Defoe haven’t really played for Tottenham that much because of Berbatov and Keane.  This needs changing.  The other thing with English players is that no many of them (only Beckham but he doesn’t count as he is in the USA, and Hargreaves who played for Munich before the summer but is now at Manchester United) play abroad in other countries.  This enables them to gain more experience of different styles of play and to monitor how other countries play and gain success.  Look at Brazil.  Not many of their players play in Brazil.

It is clear that there is a lot to think about in order to get the state of the English game back on track.  Do the public want the best domestic league in the world or do they want the best national team in the world?  Maybe we need to make that choice sooner rather than later.

Finally the day has come.  I have been searching, and trying to get my hands on footage of the 1988 formula one grand prix season and today I have finally got my hands on a copy of the VHS video season review.

Why is this season so important?  Well to most it probably isn’t however 1988 was the season before I started getting interested in F1 racing.  I started watching for real in 1991 but sort of kept in touch with the 1989 and 1990 seasons.  This meant that I never saw F1 before this.  I have since managed to get my hands on the amazing 1986 season where Nigel Mansell narrowly missed out on the Championship in the last round in Australia, but the 1988 season always alluded me.

I suppose the reason why I wanted to watch this season was for 2 main reasons.  The first being that it was the first championship winning season for the late, great Ayrton Senna and secondly because it was a season dominated by McLaren as they won 15 out of the 16 races in the season.  This is something that has not been achieved since and who knows it may never be achieved again.  I am also looking forward to the dual between Prost and Senna both driving McLarens.

The only problem is, is that I will now have to find our VHS video recorder that is somewhere in the house as I disconnected it a while ago.  I tried to get a copy of this on DVD but it appears that they have not released them on DVD.

Waking up on Saturday morning there was the prospect that England would have two world champions by the end of the weekend. There was the England Rugby Union team taking part in the world cup final in Paris against South Africa and also Lewis Hamilton, fighting for the F1 title in Brazil. His rivals were Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. The weekend would end however in disappointment in both camps.

Lets start with the Rugby. England had started the tournament in poor form. Indeed they lost to the Springbok 36 - 0 in one of the games in the opening phase where England had looked poor. But they fought back well in the later stages of the competition with great wins over Australia and France. Many thought that they might just have what it takes. They battled hard but in the end they were not to triumph. However it was still a great effort to get that far.

I have followed Formula One for a while now. In fact it was back in 1991 when I first started to watch Nigel Mansell and his challenge to become F1 champion in his Williams. I watched the greats of the 80s and 90s with Senna, Prost, Mansell and Schumacher, including Damon Hill’s championship winning season in 1996. However throughout all of those drivers not one of them was like Lewis Hamilton who was in contention to win the Formula One championship in his rookie season.

Lewis started the year as a rookie who was new to the sport and not expected to win. It was clear that after a few races he was going to be more than just a passenger to Alonso. When he won his first race in Canada earlier this year it become more clear that he was going to be a real contender for the crown of Formula One Champion.

Lewis drove brilliantly all year until the race in China. He had put allsorts of set backs behind him through the season, things that experienced drivers may not have coped with, such as his team being thrown out of the World Championship constructors race due to spying allegations and ill blood between him and his team mate Alonso which came to a head in Hungary. Despite all this he made no mistakes until the Chinese grand prix when he slid into a gravel trap on the entrance to the pit lane which ended his race. Another small error in Brazil at the start cost him places dropping him to eight, which quickly became seventh as he overtook cars. Then a gearbox problem meant he was stuck in neutral for precious seconds until the car came back to life and he recovered in 18th position. By the end of the race he was seventh, two places to low in order to take the title.

However he will learn from this. It was great to see his dad in such a happy mood saying that he still had done a great job and that is true. Hopefully this season will set him up a for a fantastic career in formula one were maybe he will be the most successful English driver yet. I look forward to next season to see how he will come back.

For almost the last two months many of us have been engrossed in the Rugby world cup.  I have to confess that I have only become interested when we were victorious against Australia in the quarter finals.  But after watching only a few games I can clearly see that there are many good points over the beautiful game we all know and love - football.

I don’t really know an awful lot about the game of Rugby Union.  When I was at school the PE teachers used to try and get us to play, but they had an almost impossible job as all we wanted to play was football (and maybe cricket in the summer).  I have never really watched an entire game all the way through to be honest.  But even from watching just the two games that I have in this world cup, it is clear that the whole ethos of the sport is completely different from that of football.  Lets take a look at a few examples:

• Any abuse to the referee or even the merest of back chat in his direction and the opposition team are awarded 10 yards advantage or even a penalty.  Player rarely do it.  Watch a football game and player swear and curse at the referee.
• There is tremendous (controlled) aggression on the field of play.  Lets face it when you have got 16 stone men in the peak of physical fitness playing a contact sport this is going to happen, but this aggression is in the laws of the game and is taken that way by the players, not personal as it sometimes is in football.
• There is a very sporting atmosphere and teams are good losers.  You don’t see coaches remonstrating with officials trying to get decisions changed.
• With the amount of physical contact that happens you would expect there to be a lot of injuries occurring.  However there seems to be less than in football.  Players get stuck in and don’t make something out of nothing.  They don’t fake injuries which is basically cheating like the footballers do.
• Finally the fans.  I have not seen or heard of any trouble from any supporters in the Rugby world cup.  It just seems that people go along to support their nation and have a jolly good time.

Why cannot football be like this.  The thing that stands out to me here is that the footballers of today’s world are role models for he youngsters of this world.  They are always in the media these days and therefore youngsters aspiring to perform at the same level will take on board what they say and do.  I believe that this is in part some of the reason as to why so many youngsters (particularly young boys) are very aggressive, because they feel they have to be like this on the football field.  And when they are like this on the pitch, they are not punished or told it is wrong.  In fact there are not discouraged from this and this is starting to happen in society as well.

That aside I am looking forward to the World Cup Final tomorrow and I just hope that we can make it two world cup titles in row.  Maybe I should watch less football and more Rugby to make my point.

Yesterday for the second weekend in a row I was up at 0600 in order to watch Lewis Hamilton in his bid to become the first rookie formula one world champion ever. Last weekend is what joy and success with a win however this weekend it was the opposite. Retirement and the fight moves on.

Hamilton had a great weekend up until about lap 28. He qualified the McClaren on pole position with a terrific lap on Saturday, despite all the pressure of a stewards enquiry about his win the week before. The race was wet, however despite this Lewis made a great start and led away, extending his lead to 9 seconds before his first stop. In this stop the decisions was made not to change tyres. A decision that he and the team would regret later in the race. After his stop he came under pressure from Kimi and it was clear that there was something very wrong. Lewis’ tyres were almost bald down to the canvas, as you could see a white mark on the right rear. Coming into the pits Lewis went straight on with tyres that couldn’t keep him on the road and he beached the car in the gravel trap.

He was very positive even though he must have been disappointed. It really is ironic as there are huge run-off areas all round the Shanghai race circuit, however the pit lane has a gravel trap. Drivers were leaving the road all round the circuit in the slippery conditions and recovering but when Lewis went off in the pit lane there was no such luck. Why had the team kept him out so long?

This was Lewis Hamilton’s first mistake all season and how costly could it be? Well, if he looks on the bright side, he went into the Asia double header of races in Japan and China with a 2 point lead over team-mate Fernando Alsono, and he leaves the two races with a 4 point lead. I bet that if you had said to him before the Japanese grand prix that he could not race in both and increase his lead to 4 points he would have took it. All eyes are on Brazil in a fortnight to see who, out of Kimi, Lewis and Fernando will become formula one world champion 2007.

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Formula One
Chinese Grand Prix

Today saw one of the best racing weekends on the calendar. Why? Well the party went to Spa, in my view the greatest of all racing circuits in the world, and home to the breath taking Eau Rouge corner.

There is nothing like a good racing track to make Formula one worth watching and this weekend Formula one was back at Spa in Belgium after a years absence due to improvements (?) to the circuit. I put a question mark next to this for one main reason. Have they improved it or has it lost its character?

Well with the high standards of safety and media attention that surround Formula One these days it was clear that Spa had to evolve to keep pace with the other, new hi-tech circuits that have emerged over the last few years. I think they have actually done it very well. They have managed to keep the circuit with the same corners, although they have had to modify some of them slightly.

The main changes are with the start finish straight. This was lengthened slightly as well as been widened to create more room for manoeuvre at the start of the race. There will be no more getting onto the grass to get round the someone at the first corner like we have seen in previous years. The La Source hairpin has also changed slightly with a wider exit. Perhaps the biggest change has been with the “Bus Stop” chicane at the end of the lap. This is been revered as it is now a right left corner rather than a left right corner. This is the one corner on the circuit that I think has lost its character.

Anyway I write this article with one corner at the forefront of my mind. Its name is Eau Rouge and it is what makes watching, and I am sure driving in Formula One worth while. Eau Rouge is a fast left, right, left, right combination that is taken flat out in top gear. Something breaks around here and you know about it. But it is not just the sweeping change of direction that is the key to this corner. It is the change in slope. At the start of the corner the cars are going down hill from the La Source hairpin. Just as they enter the Eau Rouge set of turns the cars go up hill and at nearly 200mph this creates a compression effect with the cars, due to the down force that they create. This means that the cars are 25mm closer to the tarmac than when travelling normally. Before cars were fitted with wooden planks to control the ride height you used to see many a car bottoming out here a sparks would fly. Take a look at this McClaren sweeping through Eau Rouge. It can’t help but bring a smile to your face.

It is not all glory through there though. With such high forces going through the car and the body mistakes or mechanical failure often happen, as many a driver including Alex Zinardi have found out. I am just glad that they have kept the corner true to the old Eau Rouge in the new circuit rather than changing it to make it too safe. Part of the thrill of the bend is knowing its danger.

I have been watching the cricket all summer, first the West Indies Series and then later in the summer the Indians.  What has stuck me  is the support for the Indian team in this country.

Now with there being a large Asian population in many areas of the country, for example Birmingham, you would expect that there would be many Indian supporters.  I would have thought that these supporters would be of more advanced years, as they would have come over from India back in the 60s and 70s as immigrants.  Therefore they were born in India and rightly so are supporting their own country.

However what I have noticed is that there are a number of younger Asian people that are going to cricket games (which is good as more support at cricket matches is what is needed), yet they are supporting India.  These people, I would think are born in England.  Therefore why are they supporting India?

If I suddenly moved abroad, there would be no way that I would start supporting some other country.  Also if I had been born in another nation and lived there for a long time then I wouldn’t support the nation of my parents.  Not having been in this situation it is difficult to comment fairly but I cannot understand how someone born in this country would be supporting another nation.  Any ideas are welcome!